Southern Meuse-Rhenish

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This article is a part of the Dutch dialects series.
Languages of the Netherlands‎ Dutch dialects Low Franconian Brabantian Hollandic Zeelandic West Flemish French Flemish East Flemish South Guelderish Limburgish Meuse-Rhenish Low Rhenish Low Franconian/Ripuarian Southern Meuse-Rhenish Low Dietsch Low Saxon Dutch Low Saxon
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Southern Meuse-Rhenish, also to be defined as South-east Low Franconian, is a subdivision of what recently has been named Meuse-Rhenish. Both terms denote a rather compact grouping of Low Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Lower Rhineland regions, near the common Dutch/Flemish (Belgium) and Dutch/German borders. These dialectal varieties differ notably from Dutch and Flemish at the one side, and no less from German at the other. In the Netherlands and Belgium this group is simply called Limburgish. Limburgish was recently recognised as a regional language (streektaal) in the Netherlands and as such it receives moderate protection under chapter 2 of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The border of this varieties to the South is the Benrath line, to the North it is the Uerdingen line.

[edit] Subdialects of Limburgish

A lot of subgroupings can be made here.

• Centraal Lower Limburgish is a variety of Limburgish around Maastricht and Heerlen in the Netherlands and Genk in Belgium. Central Limburgish is a concept used in Germany, which includes the area around Maastricht and stretches further North. In Germany there is also a concept of a variety of Limburgish around Genk, and another of Limburgish between Genk and Hasselt.

• East Limburgish-Ripuarian transitional zone is a concept used in Germany to describe the linguistic area in Belgium around Eupen, including Welkenraedt, Lontzen and Moresnet, in the Netherlands between Ubach and Brunssum and a large area in Germany including Mönchengladbach. In the Netherlands, this variety is referred to as Southeast Limburgish (see separate section below). East Limburgish as a concept is also used in Germany, which includes an area from Belgian Voeren South of Maastricht in the Netherlands, to an area in Germany including Dülken and central Krefeld.

• West Lower Limburgish is the variety of Limburgish spoken around Hasselt and Veldeke in Belgium. In Germany West Limburgish is a concept including the Limburgish spoken around Hasselt and Veldeke in Belgium and including areas in Dutch Limburg and Dutch Brabant. The border of West Limburgish and East Limburgish starts few South of the area between the villages of 's-Gravenvoeren and Sint-Martens-Voeren in the Belgian municipality of Voeren.

• The at least to the largest extent non-tonal varieties of East Getelandish, West Getelandish and Bilzerlandish are considered as being parts of Southern Meuse-Rhenish. East Getelandish, which is spoken around St Truiden in Belgium is considered a variety of Southern Meuse-Rhenish. West Getelandish spoken up to the Uerdingen Line, which reaches the Dutch-Walloon linguistic border at Bierbeek in Belgium also is considered a variety of Southern Meuse-Rhenish. The other varieties considered variants of Southern Meuse-Rhenish, are Bilzerlandish spoken around Genk in Belgium and Tongerlandish spoken around Tongeren in Belgium.

[edit] Southeast Limburgish around Aachen

By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is divided into Upper German (green) and Central German (blue), and the Low Saxon (yellow). The main isoglosses, the Benrath and Speyer lines are marked black.

Southeast Limburgish is spoken around Kerkrade, Bocholtz and Vaals in the Netherlands, Aachen in Germany and Raeren and Eynatten in Belgium. In Germany it is sometimes considered as Ripuarian, not always as Limburgish. This explains why it is not distinctly marked on both maps (at right and below). These pictures however, have to be finetuned for the transitional zone between Limburgish and Ripuarian. In Belgium, the south-eastern boundary between Meuse-Rhenish or (French) francique rhéno-mosan and Ripuarian is formed by the so-called Low Dietsch (in Limburgish: Platduutsj) language area. According to a contemporary vision, all varieties in a wider half circle some 20 KM around Aachen, including 2/3 of Dutch South Limburg and also the Low Dietsch area between Voeren and Eupen in Belgium, can be taken as a group of its own, which recently has been named Limburgish of the Three Countries Area (Dutch: Drielandenlimburgs, German: Dreiländerplatt), referring to the place where Holland, Belgium and Germany meet. Its concept was introduced by Ad Welschen, mainly based on research by Jean Frins (2005, 2006). This variety still possesses interesting syntactic idiosyncrasies, probably dating from the period in which the old Duchy of Limburg existed.

[edit] Relation to Ripuarian

If only tonality is to be taken as to define this variety, both Southeast Limburgish and Ripuarian belong to a broader class of Meuse-Rhenish varieties in a wider sense. This tonal language group stretches rather deep into Germany, even across the Rhine up to Siegen. In Germany, it is consensus to class both varieties as belonging to High German varieties. But this is a little over-simplified. In order to include this variety properly a more encompassing concept is needed. The combination of Meuse-Rhenish and Ripuarian, including their overlapping transitional zones of Southeast Limburgish and Low Dietsch, will do.

Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West Germanic dialects today (Dialects of the following standard languages: Dutch, German and Frisian). The colours in this map do not reflect the actual relationship between the languages or dialects.

[edit] Classification

• Indo-European
  • Germanic
    • West Germanic
      • Low Franconian
        • Meuse-Rhenish
          • Southern Meuse-Rhenish or Limburgish

[edit] See also

• Meuse-Rhenish
• Low Rhenish
• Limburgish
• Low Dietsch

[edit] Source

• Ad Welschen 2000-2005: Course Dutch Society and Culture, International School for Humanities and Social Studies ISHSS, Universiteit van Amsterdam

[edit] References

• Georg Cornelissen 2003: Kleine niederrheinische Sprachgeschichte (1300-1900) : eine regionale Sprachgeschichte für das deutsch-niederländische Grenzgebiet zwischen Arnheim und Krefeld [with an introduction in Dutch]. Geldern / Venray: Stichting Historie Peel-Maas-Niersgebied, ISBN 978-90-807292-2-3